Randolph is Awarded Grant for Revitalizing Downtown Randolph

The Town of Randolph has just been informed that the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation's Office of Community Renewal (OCR) has selected the Towns application and has been awarded $345,531.00 as part of the 2010 New York Main Street Program.

"For this year's New York Main Street Program, OCR has awarded nearly $15 million to assist communities all across New York State in addressing their main street and downtown revitalization efforts. Working collaboratively with our local partners, these resources will help stimulate investment to expand affordable housing, provide job opportunities, and create a sense of place to improve the quality of life for our communities"

"This was only our second attempt at this competitive grant program and we are so fortunate to have been awarded. The grant application was a collaborative effort in many ways. Cattaraugus County Department of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism assisted us with partial funding for a proven grant writer, Mary Anderson. We received support and direction by Donald Bloomquist,Community Development Specialist and Michael Pufpaff, Environmental Consultant, and locally the plan was developed and written by Tonia McAllister, Executive Director of the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. (RACDC), Tom Congdon, President of RACDC, & Lori Milliman, Town Clerk. It could not have happened without the teamwork that took place. This will be such a boost for our downtown business district. With the departure last fall of Conewango Products, a distribution company that was housed in three storefronts in the center of Main Street, we have been able to already fill two of those buildings with wonderful retail stores, The Randolph Retail Companythat opened its doors in June, and The Pickle Barrel which will be opening at the end of September. With these funds we can uniformly revive the tired, mismatched facade, replace windows and doors, improve energy efficiency and work on the interiors of these and other commercial businesses along Main Street and Jamestown Street. There is also a large portion of the funds designated for upper floor housing, offering our local landlords funding to provide for their apartments safety improvements as well as much needed face lifts to make their living spaces more appealing and comfortable for their tenants. This investment in our village comes on the heels of the devastating tornado that wreaked havoc on the Town and Village in July and is so much appreciated. We know that Randolph is just going to continue to grow stronger and be viewed as a destination village for homeowners, entrepreneurs and tourists."

There will be more information to come as the plans from the building owners are assembled and submitted. The project will need to be completed within two years, as per the guidelines of the grant.